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The Ticket-Giveaway Clubs Theaters Want to Keep Hush-Hush

Membership programs can help fill seats, but do they devalue shows—or build a culture of freeloaders?

By

Charles Passy

Nov. 24, 2016 2:54 p.m. ET

The poet Robert Frost famously observed, “Hell is a half-filled auditorium.” These days, less-than-packed New York theaters have a growing secret weapon: a select group of membership programs that quietly give away seats.

In the theater world, dispensing blocks of tickets is a longstanding practice, with freebies often being bestowed on senior and student groups, among others. But the strategy, known in the industry as “papering” a...